The Tastemakers
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Introduction SIR ANISH KAPOOR Sculptor, 64 Known for his big, brazen sculptures, the Turner Prize- winning sculptor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s. An Indian Jew with an Iraqi mother, he has said he often feels like an outsider, yet he remains a national treasure, receiving a knighthood in 2013. His 114.5-metre-high sculpture Orbit, created for the 2012 Olympic Games, remains Britain’s largest piece of public art. CONRAD SHAWCROSS Sulptor, 41 The youngest living member of the Royal Academy of Arts, Conrad Shawcross is a British artist specialising in mechanical sculptures based on philosophical and scientific ideas. Crafting pieces that explore subjects lying on the borders of geometry and philosophy, physics and metaphysics, he first came to prominence with his 2004 piece The Nervous System, a large, symmetrical, working loom exhibited in the Saatchi Gallery that produced 20,000 metres of double-helix coloured rope in a single week. WOLFGANG TILLMANS Photographer, 49 The first photographer — and the first non-British person — to be awarded the Turner Prize, Wolfgang Tillmans emerged in the 1990s with his stark snapshot documentations of youths, clubs and LGBTQ culture. Since then his practice has expanded to include diaristic photography, large-scale abstraction and commissioned magazine work. His latest photo book What is Different? explores the concept of post-truth and how people deny or skew facts to WORDS support their beliefs. How timely. Bios by Will Moffitt JB: Joseph Bullmore LIAM GILLICK Conceptual artist, 54 JW: Jonathan Wells RS: Russell Sheldrake An original member of the so-called Young British Artists, Gillick is associated with a group of artists who pioneered the field of relational aesthetics. Gillick PHOTOGRAPHY has worked in a range of mediums, from sculpture James Harvey Kelly and writing to film and music, making him hard to pin down. One thing all his pieces investigate is how the manufactured world carries traces of social, political and economic systems. SEE A CURATOR as a catalyst, generator and motivator,” IDRIS KHAN Photographer, 39 says Hans-Ulrich Obrist, artistic director at the Serpentine Gallery and one of our tastemakers for 2018. He puts it far Specialising in photomechanical reproduction, Khan I could be called a ‘painter of photography’. His technique better than I could, so I’d quite like to pinch the sentiment. of overlapping layers of photographs and unusual source Our collection of the 50 most influential people in London’s material - every page of the Quran, every Beethoven world of art and design is, in a way, its own small curation — a sonata - turns still images into dynamic works that collapse periods of time into single moments. A revered gallery of the figures who define the culture and talking points figure, Khan received an OBE in 2017. of the greatest city in the world. Putting it together has given us some sympathy for the JEREMY DELLER Conceptual artist, 52 gallerists, curators and collectors contained inside. Any finite A conceptual, video and installation artist, Deller is list is destined to leave out some very eligible candidates, a Turner Prize-winning artist who is well-known for especially in a city spilling over with as much talent as London, his large-scale collaborative projects that focus on formative moments in British history. His best-known and there are some names that we were particularly sad work, The Battle of Orgreave, curated in 2001, brought to omit. Unlike The Sunday Times Rich List, say, there’s no together 1,000 people for a public re-enactment of tangible metric for inclusion here. Taste and influence are this violent confrontation from the 1984 miners’ strike. highly subjective, but taste and influence in the world of art CHARLES SAATCHI Gallerist, 74 are something else entirely. The Tastemakers 2018 mingles youth with experience and The man who made the Young British Artists rich and famous, Saatchi shot to fame through the advertising establishment players with rogues and dissidents — it’s a fair agency he started with his brother Maurice in 1970. cross section, perhaps, of London’s creative scene-at-large. Sixteen years later it was the largest ad agency in the Taken as a whole, though, I’m happy to say it paints a picture world and Saatchi’s art collection a multi-million dollar treasure trove. His penchant for modern work found of an artistic city in rude health. To borrow Obrist’s words, we its expression in Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, who hope that it generates and motivates a little conversation. JB Saatchi thrust into the global spotlight in the 1990s. » THOMAS HEATHERWICK Architect, 48 Described by Terence Conran as the “Leonardo da Lawrence Van Hagen Vinci of our times”, Heatherwick is one of Britain’s most sought-after designers, known for creating Gallerist bold, attention-grabbing pieces such as the 2012 Olympic cauldron. With its self-proclaimed team of “180 problem-solvers”, Heatherwick’s King’s Cross studio remains a magical and mysterious place, churning out 170 projects over a prolific 24 year period. JASPER CONRAN Fashion designer, 58 Son of the acclaimed designer and restaurateur Terence, Jasper Conran is one of the UK’s leading AWRENCE VAN HAGEN fell into the art world almost fashion designers. Conran produced his first womens- wear collection in 1978 and was a founding member by accident. An entrepreneur since he was a teenager, of the London Designer Collections - subsequently the gallerist’s first love is travel. “My nickname was Lolo, renamed London Fashion Week - where he contin- L ues to show today. He has since diversified from so I started a travel-booking service called Lolo Travel — the womenswear into menswear, fragrance, accessories, tag line was, ‘How low can you go?’” he remembers. “I would eyewear, luggage, home collections, interiors and book the travel arrangements for my friends’ parents. I still the performing arts. He received an OBE in 2008 for get geeky over plane seats.” his services to retail. He certainly spent enough time in them. “I worked five summers in a row in China when I was still at school,” he says. SEBASTIAN COX Furniture designer, 31 “I shadowed the managing director of Louis Vuitton when I With a philosophy based on honesty and simplicity, Cox has risen from humble beginnings in a Lincolnshire was 13 and went back to China every year after that.” stable to forge an award-winning furniture brand. Following a computer-science degree at UCL, Van Hagen Producing cabinets, tables and bespoke projects dreamed of setting up a travel tech company. To raise the nec- with a focus on sustainable British hardwoods and coppiced timbers, Cox has won numerous awards essary funds, he decided to put on an art show. “My mother and even had his pieces exhibited at the V&A. has always been involved in the art world and as a child at birthdays and Christmas I would ask for paintings instead of MARC NEWSON Designer, 54 other presents,” he says. “And many of my friends would ask For many Newson is the most influential designer of me what artists to buy, so it seemed natural to me.” his generation. He is the co-designer of the Apple The inaugural show, What’s Up, in Soho in 2016, had an Watch and has created everything from furniture, household objects and bicycles to cars, private 85 per cent sell through rate — formidable for any exhibitor, and commercial aircraft and yachts. In April 2015 his let alone a first-timer. “The idea was based on the notion of Lockheed Lounge chair sold at auction for £2.4m, what’s up on walls today, who are the artists to look out for making it the most expensive object ever sold by a living designer. right now,” he says. “And suddenly I realised, ‘Damn, I really love what I’m doing.’” JAMES WATERWORTH Interior designer Since then, Van Hagen has become something of an unof- Since starting his career at Martin Brudnizki Design ficial counsel for first-time art buyers of any age. I suspect Studio, one of the world’s leading hospitality firms, some of that success comes down to his singular demeanour. Waterworth has established himself as one of Britain’s On the sunny roof terrace at 5 Hertford Street, in an Italian most renowned interior designers. After overseeing the ambitious design of Soho Beach House in Miami, he charcoal double-breasted suit, the 25-year-old bounces with returned to London to establish Alexander Waterworth an infectious energy and a near-omnivorous knowledge of the Interiors with his business partner Alexander Evangelou. contemporary art scene. In 2011 they became the youngest group to be featured in House & Garden’s Top 100 Designers. “I put on an average 40 to 50 artists per show and I believe in every single one of them. I don’t only put up market artists, ROSE UNIACKE Interior designer, 54 either.” To Van Hagen, transparency is key. “Sometimes I tell The interior designer behind the Beckhams’ Holland my clients, ‘This is a really beautiful painting. I don’t think it’ll Park mansion and Jo Malone’s 18-century London be worth 10 times the price next year, but I absolutely love it.’” townhouse, Uniacke is renowned for her serene but Van Hagen also makes a point of meeting every artist he sophisticated interiors. Dubbed the Queen of Serene by The Sunday Times, Uniacke won the Andrew Martin exhibits. “The art is only part of the story. You need to know Interior Designer of the Year Award - often described where it came from,” he says.